Correspondenz-Partien [Correspondence Games].

Author: Ludwig Erdmann Bledow (1795-1846) signed by Fritz Riemann

Year: 1872

Publisher: Verlag von Veit and Company

Place: Leipzig

Description:

vi+138 pages with index. Octavo (8 1/4" x 5 1/2") bound in half purple cloth over marbled boards. Collected and annotated second significantly expanded edition, edited by M. Lange. Signed by Fritz Riemann. (Linde – No. 3380; Schmid, pp. 129 ff) Second edition. First published in 1843.

The collection contains 164 annotated games and a chronological overview featuring approximately 210 games played between various cities during the period 1824–1870.

Dr. Ludwig Erdmann Bledow was a prominent German chess master and organizer who served as a central figure in establishing Germany as a major chess power in the 19th century. Bledow became the undisputed strongest player in Berlin around 1840. He won matches against top contemporaries, including Tassilo von Heydebrand und der Lasa, Bernhard Horwitz, Carl Mayet, József Szén, and Augustus Mongredien. He co-founded and led a group of seven highly talented Berlin-based players known as the Berlin Pleiades. This circle helped transform chess from a casual pastime into a rigorously analyzed science. In 1846, Bledow founded the Schachzeitung der Berliner Schachgesellschaft. It was later renamed the Deutsche Schachzeitung and became the longest-running chess magazine in the world. Bledow possessed a massive chess library. His extensive book collection directly aided Von der Lasa and Paul Rudolf von Bilguer in writing the Handbuch des Schachspiels, the most influential chess manual of its era.

Fritz Riemann (1859–1932) was Anderssen's last pupil, having played with him at the Breslau Chess Club. In 1879, he took 5th in Leipzig (1st DSB–Congress, Berthold Englisch won), and took 2nd in Wesselburen. In 1880, he took 2nd, behind Louis Paulsen, in Braunschweig (13th WSB–Congress), and drew a match with Emil Schallopp (+2 –2 =2) in Berlin. In 1881, he tied for 13-14th in Berlin (2nd DSB–Congress, Joseph Henry Blackburne won). In 1883, he tied for 6-7th in Nuremberg (3rd DSB–Congress, Szymon Winawer won). In 1885, he tied for 8-9th in Hamburg (4th DSB–Congress, Isidor Gunsberg won), and drew a match with Ernst Flechsig (+5 –5 =0) in Breslau.[2] In 1888, he shared 1st with Curt von Bardeleben in Leipzig.

Condition:

Signed by Fritz Riemann on the front end paper. Interior toned. Binding rubbed with bumped corners. Spine faded else very good.